1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a nanometer size having a phase-separated structure or a structure obtained from such material. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method of producing such structure and a device constituted of such structure such as an electronic device, an electrode, a magnetic recording medium, a functional film having catalytic ability, or an electron emitting device.
2. Related Background Art
There has been a growing interest in a fine structure as a functional material in recent years. An example of an approach to produce such fine structure includes an approach to produce a fine structure directly by means of a semiconductor processing technique typified by a fine pattern forming technique such as photolithography.
In addition to the above semiconductor processing technique, an approach to utilize a self-organization phenomenon or self-formation phenomenon of a material is available as a technique for producing a fine structure. This approach intends to realize a novel fine structure on the basis of a regular structure to be spontaneously formed. Out of the approaches of this kind, one disclosed in the US Published Application US-2005-0053773 involves forming a phase-separated structure between a first material and a second material, so a self-organized structure can be formed of an inorganic material.
The production of a structure as described in the above US Published Application has been considered to require that no compound between the first material and the second material be formed (for example, between aluminum and silicon). In this case, only several combinations of selectable materials are available. Therefore, there has been a demand on the ability to form a self-organizing phase-separated structure even in a combination of materials capable of forming a compound as well as such limited combinations of materials.